My 1-Step Internet Troll Elimination System

I began publishing video online in 2006. I didn’t plan on that becoming a career, or the launching point of a “personal brand” (what’s that?) back then, but timing + insight worked well for me.

Within 24 months of first publishing content, I made first contact with an emerging but now-familiar species: online trolls.

Troll (via Urban Dictionary): Someone who deliberately pisses people off online to get a reaction

Trolls are normal in the basketball world (which made up 99% of my video content from 2005–10) for a simple reason: any male who’s ever even watched a game thinks he knows the game really well. Every dribble, dunk and jumpshot I posted was a magnet for possible derision — though, I should note, the overwhelming majority of the feedback was positive.

Human nature has it, though, that we notice the negative much more easily and remember it for longer.

I remember when someone posted one of my vids to their Facebook profile and tagged me. “Here’s a cool move by Dre Baldwin.”

It was me in an empty gym doing some one-on-none moves. Those empty gym drills are how I learned the game, and how “DreAllDay” and “Work On Your Game” got established.